mr. brennan. >> after leaving the c.i.a. in november 2007, brennan defended the enhanced methods saying they have, quote, saved lives. today brennan offered this explanation. >> i had expressed my personal objections and views to my agency colleagues about certain of those eit's such as water boarding, nudity and others where i professed my personal objection to it. but i did not try to stop it because it was something that was being done in a different part of the agency under the authority of others. >> another key question has been high profile leaks which critics say were strategically done to make mr. obama look tough. brennan says he's not the subject of a probe or target. he's a witness. chris. >> mike emmanuel on capitol hill, thanks for that. the confirmation vote fort next defense secretary was held up until the current pentagon chief agreed to answer questions about last september's terrorist attack in libya. today a senate panel got to question leon panetta, national security correspondent jennifer griffin tells us not everyone was satisfied with what they heard. >> b

make decisions as to who should be on their kill list and mr brennan would certainly be the most appropriate person to ask because he is known to have been in charge of the kill list and he's known as the architect of the administration's targeted assassinations program so the question of who the drones are targeting was critical and one of the senators asked john brennan whether there should be at least some judicial oversight over those executions by drones and here's what he said none of those actions or to determine past guilt for those actions that he took the decisions that are made or to take action so that we prevent future action to protect american lives so the rationale that john brennan gave for not going to court is that the administration is not in the business of punishing individuals but it's in the business of preventing attacks he basically says the u.s. government could execute people for what they haven't done yet you would expect a follow up questions from lawmakers as to how the administration determines the level of threat as these people constitute let's i

questions for mr. brennan. >> after leaving the cia in 2007 he defended the enhanced method saying they quote max save the lives quote. >> i expressed my personal objections and my views about certain such as water boarding and nudity professing my personal objections but i did not try to stop it because it was something being done in a different part of the agency under authority of the others. >> also high-profile leaks that were strategically done to make obama look top. >> he says he is not the subject of a probe, but a witness. lou: thank you to our chief congressional correspondent mike emmanuel. now the stunning disjointed efforts of communicating within the administration and a very serious lack of understanding how to react to the attacks on benghazi our next guest says the legally correct drone program carried out by the administration bears further examination. judith miller, a former u.s. ambassador, said john bolton , let's go to benghazi first rebels say i have heard very few days of testimony like general dempsey and leon panetta a one negative panetta it made me sick to

jeopardize confirmation of john brennan the white house counterterrorism advisor to head the cia. >> mr. brennan brings, i think, not only a vast amount of experience, but a significant perspective on the battles that we wage in this effort and the right way to conduct them. so, the president believes that the senate should and will confirm john brennan expeditiously. >> but the president's traditional reporters including the aclu says it's unamerican because of the lack of transparency and there's no meaningful congressional oversight review by those courts. >> we keep hearing media reports that john brennan has applied more process and more careful about this program of killing than other people have. but at the bottom line we took a program, the united states took a program that had very-- was used very minimally by president bush, and now they're over 3,000 civilians who have been killed in this, in this program. >> the obama administration base faces repeated questioning over the drone campaign and the deaths of noncombatants since 2011 and the american cleric you see him on the le

emphasizing brennan's experience. >> mr. brennan brings, i think, not on a vast amount of experience, but a significant perspective on the battles that we wage in this effort. and the right way to conduct them. so the president believes the senate should and will confirm john brennan expeditiously. >> reporter: expect him to get questions about how involved he was in interrogation techniques at the cia. rick: senator lindsey graham will be at today's hearing on benghazi. the top carolina republican joins us later right here in america's newsroom. martha: just hours to go before the cia nominee john brennan testifies. mr. brennan helped manage the drone program. he is very supportive of it and has spoken out on it's times. it represents a concession about it white house, do it not? >> reporter: it does. the president acting a week and a half after a group of bipartisan senators asked for the legal opinion that justifies drone attacks against americans abroad. but others say it doesn't answer how much evidence the president needs. does he need to give the person a chance to surrender.

have been very, very damaging. so i think those, that's a line of questioning that mr. brennan should have to go through in the senate. and as i understand it, he will, because you can't have a foreign policy that is delivered by leak to the american press. it's dangerous. we know it has cost us sources. we know it cost us operations. we know it put in jeopardy, at least a part of the time members of our special forces units that may have been involved in those raids. we had to protect their families. so it is really, really important that they get the notion that yes, foreign policy is hard but you have to sell it in a way that does not disclose classified information. and that's been concerning it me. i hope that they have gotten that message. i think today we'll hear a lot about that when the senate does their questioning of mr. brennan. jenna: congressman, thank you very much for the time today. i know it is a busy one as always for you in capitol hill. we always appreciate you joining us, thank you. >> thanks, jenna. jon: fascinating topics on the front burner today. one lawmaker

intelligence committee and the full senate has to really ask some hard questions of mr. brennan. >> reporter: critics also point out that if the obama white house wants to build broad support for this program it would be in their interests to show more transparency as to the rules which govern targeted killings because targeting an american citizen for death without judicial due process is a real departure, even from what we saw under the bush administration. jenna: big story for us today, catherine. thank you. >> reporter: you're welcome. jon: right now high stakes negotiations underway in washington of the president obama sitting down with top business and union leaders to talk about immigration reform and a possible guest worker program. meantime down the street on capitol hill the house judiciary committee holding its own hearing on immigration. joining us now to talk about all this, a.b. stoddard, associate editor and columnist for "the hill." the president you point out missed an opportunity or a deadline really to put forward his budget. what's he doing instead? >> well, he's going to

will confirm john brennan expeditious >> reporter: john brennan described as architect of the expanded drone campaign is now in the crosshairs of republicans democrats and mr. obama's traditional support others the left. >> it's a program that used very minimally by president bush. now there are over 3,000 civilians who have been killed in this program. >> on brennan's watch, anwar al-awlaki was the first american successfully targeted for death in september 2011. two weeks later his son was killed in a drone strike. >> i think it's fair to say, far fewer civilians lose their lives in an effort to go after senior leadership and al-qaeda along the lines we are discussing as opposed to an effort to invade a country with hundreds of thousands of troops and take cities and towns. >> reporter: the draft memorandum mem oh targeting killing of americans is described as overly simplistic. >> before they decided to take an extraordinary action and essentially unilaterally execute an american says they wanted legal cover. >> reporter: senator ron widen is going to pull out all the stops

lawmakers may stall or even block mr. obama's nominee to run the cia. white house counter terrorism advisor john brennan unless the senators get good cooperation from the administration like providing the secret legal memos, quote: congress and the public can decide whether the president's power to deliberately kill american citizens is subject to appropriate limitations and safeguards. republican senator susan collins who signed a letter telling fox late today the refusal to release the secret memos is hypocritical. >> obama administration that released all of these opinions from the office of legal counsel about the bush administration's treatment of detainees. so, why the different standards? >> brennan is expected to be pressed thursday not only on the targeted killing program but the cia interrogation program. critics call torture and whether he was or knows the source of these national security leaks to the media shep. >> shepard: you mentioned critics, catherine, many of them are saying the president isn't really living up to his own promises. >> they point to the president's